Boy weighing 15kg undergoes kidney transplant

Pranav Patil, 8, is excited that he will soon be able to eat bowlfuls of dal that his mother makes without any restrictions.

Pranav Patil, 8, is excited that he will soon be able to eat bowlfuls of dal that his mother makes without any restrictions.

Unlike most eight-year-olds, whose parents have to beg them to eat dal everyday, Pranav couldn’t eat dal because he had a chronic kidney malfunction and was advised against a high-protein diet. These restrictions will soon be lifted as Pranav underwent a kidney transplant surgery on November 20, at Jaslok Hospital.

Pranav weighed only 15 kg. The advisable weight for such a surgery is 20 kg. “We could not wait for his weight to increase as his kidney condition was the cause of his low weight,” said Kusum Mehta, paediatric nephrologist.

Another challenge was to transplant a full-grown adult’s kidney into a child.

“The kidney was 10 cm, the size of Pranav’s abdomen,” said Joshi, who had to remove his right kidney to make room for the new kidney.

A day after the successful surgery, Pranav’s body produced 20 litres of urine as it started eliminating the toxicity using the new kidney.

“At such a time it was important to ensure he remained hydrated so we had to use 40 doses of saline water and monitor him on a four hour basis,” said nephrologists Rushi Desphande.

Pranav was diagnosed with Dysplasia, a congenital disorder. “We noticed that he stopped growing in weight and height when he was nine months old and fell sick often,” said Patil.

A blood serum test showed high levels of creatinine.

His parents consulted Kusum Mehta, who put Pranav on medication to tackle the problem.

Five months ago, when Mehta noticed that Pranav’s kidneys were failing and his creatinine levels were rising dangerously, she advised the parents to prepare for a transplant.

“We were able to do a surgery on Pranav before he got to a stage where we would need weekly dialysis,” said Mehta.

Cases of paediatric kidney transplant are extremely rare, constituting 10% of the total transplant surgeries done globally, said doctors.

However, cases of dysplasia of the kidney are not as rare but often go undiagnosed.

The condition can be diagnosed using sonography during pregnancy or by monitoring growth after the child is born.

“In India, the lack of growth usually gets attributed to malnutrition and these cases are not identified,” said Mehta.

If diagnosed early this condition can be medically managed and the success rate of surgery is 95% among children. Pranav’s condition has shown improvement and he has started gaining weight.

“I can’t wait to go back to having fun with my friends,” said a restless Pranav.